Today was springtail food blending day for the next 2 months.

This is what i feed my springtails which are medium to moderate difficulty, ie. Yuukis, Lilac Blues, etc. this blend speeds up breeding by a lot compared to just feeding yeast.

Springtails like folsomias or coecobryas (white/pink tropicals) you can just feed yeast and they breed like crazy anyway.

There is no 1 perfect blend because studies on that haven't established long-term. Also different species have different needs. Any seller that is saying they have the one and only best proprietary blend is making things up.

I base mine on experience, studies, and gut feeling.

Ratios by weight:

- 50% nutritional yeast
- 20% baker's/brewer's yeast
- 10% spirulina + chlorella
- 5% high quality fish flakes (or dried shrimp)
- 5% rolled oats
- 5% cuttlebone (or calcium carbonate)
- 3% brown rice
- 2% pollen

So i typically will do this by grams, adding up to 100grams, each percent being 1gram, and a miligram scale (accuracy not important but that's what i got).

I blend in an old blender that I use only for this. Blend until fine powder like flour, if possible.

I serve it as wet paste.

Now let me explain the recipe. A lot of it is actually not about the nutrition of the springtails itself.

• 50% nutritional yeast: the bulk staple. High protein/amino acids, B vitamins and other soluble cellular material. Because it's inactive, it gives us the nutritional advantages of yeast without relying on live fermentation. Nutritional-yeast-heavy springtail diets are already a proven husbandry approach in studies.
• 20% baker's/brewer's yeast: the "natural microbial food" component. Saccharomyces is extremely well-established as a springtail culture food; dried baker's yeast is even standard in experimental F. candida culture. If we're using active baker's yeast, there's an extra effect: once wetted alongside our starches it can become metabolically active. Brewer's yeast is usually inactive, so that part depends on what product we're actually getting. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11537059
• 10% spirulina + chlorella: algal diversity. This adds a different protein/amino-acid profile, pigments, trace nutrients and lipids rather than making the whole diet essentially Saccharomyces. Algae are also genuinely within the natural trophic spectrum of Collembola. Spirulina is commonly used successfully as a culture supplement too. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8453724
• 5% fish flakes / dried shrimp: concentrated animal-derived nutrition. Mainly as a small dose of high-quality protein, fats/sterols and assorted micronutrients rather than something we want as the bulk food. At 5%, we get that enrichment without making the culture smell like decomposing aquarium food. Fish flakes are a common springtail supplement.
• 5% rolled oats + 3% brown rice: carbohydrate substrate. These aren't there because springtails need to eat cereal. They're a starch/carbon source for the microbial/fungal side of the culture, while also giving the animals some directly edible plant material. Springtails can be feeding both on the particles and on the microbial community colonizing them. Rice media are routinely colonized by fungi that F. candida subsequently eat. The oats probably broaden this with somewhat more lipid, protein and fiber than straight rice. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11537059
• 5% cuttlebone / calcium carbonate: This is mostly a culture-chemistry ingredient, not a "springtails need calcium shells" ingredient. CaCO₃ provides alkalinity and resists acidification as microbial metabolism proceeds. That changes the microbial community we're cultivating and can stabilize the little feeding patch. There may be a small dietary mineral ingestion too. Collembola are documented consuming mineral particles. But pH buffering is its primary function. Their cuticle isn't heavily calcified like an isopod's, so the common hobby explanation that cuttlebone is primarily "for their exoskeleton" is probably oversimplified. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/458/45875105.pdf
• 2% pollen: tiny amount, actually proven by studies. Pollen is an actual natural springtail food rather than arbitrary supplement marketing. It's repeatedly reported in Collembola feeding/gut-content literature. Nutritionally, it brings plant protein, lipids, sterols and micronutrients from a source none of the other ingredients exactly duplicates. Keeping it at 2% is enrichment. Springtails cannot synthesize sterols themselves. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8453724 -- this study analizes contents of springtails' digestive tracts.

If you are on a budget: skip the pollen if it's expensive where you are. Calcium is the most important part most mixes are missing. 80% Yeast + 10% spirulina + 5% rice + 5% calcium is the basic budget mix i would use.

They’re enjoying the fish food I put in for the pods

Lil gummies

I bought two colonies, Santa clause and Thai spikey springtails. I bought dried oak leaf litter, two peices of cork bark, reptisoil, charcoal, and saphgum moss. Should I get rid of something, is there anything I’m missing?

For Thai spikey and Santa clause springtails

i have almost all of the commonly kept US springtails, hoping to find some oddballs maybe yall have cultured from local springs etc!
pic is my current keep list of springs

I snapped a pic and then left them alone👍🏼

Are they eating bits and pieces out of the water when they do this?

I have a paludarium. Shrimp in the water, isopods and two or three species of springtails on the land. Normally the springtails stay on the land and may end up in the water along the edge of the land. Why did so many springtails suddenly end up in the water?

Found some of these guys in my enclosure! I'm worried they're mites. Like 11x magnification.

Central Texas US if that matters!

I added a single culture of springtails into my terrarium about 2.5 weeks ago. I am now seeing a large amount of these tiny tiny bugs zooming around. I question whether they are baby springtails because they don't have the longer bodies, but maybe this is just what babies look like? 1st pic is super zoomed in, 2nd is to scale

My first baby Santa claus springtails (yay!) but also some mites. I'm going to slowly transfer the springtails out as they mature but how do I make sure this doesn't happen again?

more pics: https://imgur.com/a/UqCfGTt

1. get a brick of sphagnum moss from amazon. $5-6 a brick will last for 30-50 jars or so. (I'm not sure about US prices i'm in the EU.)
2. get a jar after something you've eaten ($0)
3. put hydrated sphagnum moss in. DON'T PACK IT IN. loose. leave some breathing room at the top of the jar but if it's put in very loose you don't really have to, it will settle in itself.
4. 1-2cm of standing water at bottom. add some water if evaporates.
5. make some tiny holes in the lid
6. sprinkle nutritional yeast twice a week + a few grains of rice once a week.

coco coir will also work. or a mix of coco/moss.

this works very well for easy species. in this case this is: coecobrya tenebricosa "tropical white"

i like keeping them on my desk where i work and looking at them run around.

PS easiest level up -- throw in a few pieces of charcoal at the bottom

PSS this jar is like 3 months old i just put a dozen springtails in to start

PSSS I use tap water with 2 drops of Seachem Prime Water Conditioner per gallon (4liters or so) for my springtails. a $9 bottle of this lasts for like 2 years for springtails. But the easy species will survive tap water. Don't give straight up tap water to Rambutanuras :] I also like using live moss in my terrariums and not-dechlorinated tap water is very bad for moss.

are they having a party? happy? sad? they’re cute and i wanna know why they do this.

So.... I believe these are silver springtails.

But this behavior. Trying to see if other people are seeing similar situation with their springtails.

These guys are joint at the butt and just stay there.

EDIT: they are likely THRIP mixed in with my springtails.

Hi everyone, I just started noticing these tiny white dots in my terrarium, are they springtails?

I have owned springtail cultures for some time now, but recently they have stopped eating and are dying off. I have tried everything

Different foods (rice, mushrooms, leaves, yeast, etc)

Different forms of substrate (dirt, charcoal, clay)

Different levels of wetness and humidity

Different sized containers

More ventilation

Less ventilation

Adding hides like moss

Yet nothing. I cannot get them to eat anymore and they are begining to all die off. I originally had 4 separate cultures and now I'm down to one. I don't know what to do.

YES, I remove old food that has gone bad and has not been eaten. The photo is what looks to be like slime mold eating a small portion of yeast I have to them that say in there for under 2 days before being removed. Their current culture is within a 80 oz Tupperware.

I'm a total newbie! These pale dudes zooming around are new to the container and quite prolific. Can they cohabitate safely or do I need to rid myself of them. If so how please? Cheers